Issue 02 | July 2017
Jeffrey Bleich: In a Dislocated World Do Universities Have a Case to Answer?
PLUS: SCULPTURES in SPACE: Fulbrighter to send artwork to the Moon APPLYING FOR A FULBRIGHT? Insider Application Tips from our Scholarship Selection Committee NANODIAMONDS: Microscopic bling-bling
The Fulbright Program The Fulbright Program is the flagship foreign exchange scholarship program of the United States of America, aimed at increasing binational collaboration, cultural understanding, and the exchange of ideas. Born in the aftermath of WWII, the program was established by Senator J. William Fulbright in 1946 with the ethos of turning ‘swords into ploughshares’, whereby credits from the sale of surplus U.S. war materials were used to fund academic exchanges between host countries and the U.S. Since its establishment, the Fulbright Program has grown to become the largest educational exchange program in the world, operating in over 160 countries. In its seventy-year history, more than 370,000 students, academics, and professionals have received Fulbright Scholarships to study, teach, or conduct research, and promote bilateral collaboration and cultural empathy. Since its inception in Australia in 1949, the Fulbright Commission has awarded over 5,000 scholarships, creating a vibrant, dynamic, and interconnected network of Alumni.
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Our future is not in the stars but in our own minds and hearts.
Creative leadership and liberal education, which in fact go together, are the first requirements for a hopeful future for humankind. Fostering these—leadership, learning, and empathy between cultures—was and remains the purpose of the international scholarship program that I was privileged to sponsor in the U.S. Senate over forty years ago. " Senator J. William Fulbright The Price of Empire
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Contents
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Profile: Ambassador Jeffrey Bleich
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To Berkeley and Beyond - Tracey Steinrucken
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Nanodiamonds are a Cell's Best Friend - David Waddington
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Alumni Archives: My Father, the Fulbrighter - Kelton McDonald
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Fulbright Scholarship Application Tips
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An American's Adventure in Australia - Christina Zdenek
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Project MoonArk - Ioannis Michaloudis
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Copyright's Missing Voices - Patricia Aufderheide
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Holistic Approaches to Rehabilitation - Kristian Wale
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Electron Drawing: Visual Music - Tim Nohe
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Our Greatest Feats are Seldom Accomplished Alone - Caitlin Trethewy
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Online Community Behaviours in Queensland - Matthew Lee
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Fulbright Alumni Updates March-June Damien Pearce (2011, Canberra Institute of Technology to John Jay College of Criminal Justice) presented to the annual Amgen Australia kick-off event in Sydney, February 2017. The presentation was designed to inform Amgen’s Australia-based staff about the National Youth Science Forum, of which Damien is CEO.
Gretta Pecl (2009, University of Tasmania to University of Alaska) published her research in the March 2017 Edition of Science. She, and colleagues, found that climate changeinduced distributional shifts of flaura and fauna are leading to new ecosystems and ecological communities - shifts that will affect human society.
Adele Millerd (1950, University of Sydney to California Institute of Technology) delivered a prerecorded congratulatory speech to the 2016/2017 Fulbright Scholars at the March 2017 Fulbright Gala Presentation Dinner in Canberra.
Michelle Evans (2013, Melbourne Business School to University of Hawaii, Manoa) launched the Walan Mayinygu Indigenous Entrepreneurship Pop-Up Hub Program at Charles Sturt University, April 5, bringing business masterclasses, practical workshops and networking opportunities to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and businesses across New South Wales.
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Thomas Newsome (2013, Snowy Mountains Engineering Corporation to Oregon State University) published his research in the April 2017 edition of BioScience. Using large predators as case studies to explore the effects of human-provided foods, Newsome and his colleagues found numerous instances of species' changing their social structures, movements, and behaviour when these resources are available.
Adam Lockyer (2015, Macquarie University to Georgetown University) published a new book, Australia’s Defence Strategy: Evaluating Alternatives for a Contested Asia in April 2017. It has received high praise, referred to as a “tour de force on strategic thinking” by The Australian newspaper.
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Lisa-Ann Gershwin (1998, University of California, Berkeley to University of Tasmania) teamed up with two Tasmanian entrepreneurs to develop a world-first phone app that educates people about jellyfish, including safety and treatment advice. The Jellyfish App is GPS-based, and lists over 280 species.
Steven Lapidge (2010, University of South Australia to U.S. Department of Agriculture) completed a research project for the Great Australian Bight Research Program. His underwater glider was sent on a 74-day journey through the waters of the Great Australian Bight, returning loaded with new data.
William Cassidy (1952, University of Pittsburgh to Australian Land Surveying Office) has had both an Antarctic glacier (Cassidy Glacier) and a mineral (Cassidyite) named in his honour. Among his many achievements, William planned the first U.S.-Japanese Antarctic expedition, and mapped the Wolf Creek Crater, where Cassidyite was first discovered.
David Hobbs (2008, Flinders University to Shriners Hospital for Children in Philadelphia) recieved a Flinders University Distinguished Alumni Award for his work on developing a range of assistive technologies for children with disabilities.
Samia Elfekih (2008, University of Tunis to University of Hawaii, Manoa) has launched a project to assess the distribution of dengue fever across Africa and the Middle East. At the forefront of adapting novel genomic techniques to entomological systems, Elfekih will include 15 sub-Saharan countries and 10 countries in the MENA region in her upcoming study.
Ariel Marcy (2014, Stanford University to University of Queensland) won an Advance Queensland Engaging Science Grant to create a free online game design platform, catalysing student engagement with Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef, iconic wildlife, and Riversleigh fossils. Users will design versions of Go Extinct!, Ariel’s award-winning evolutionary biology-based board game.
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Fulbright Events Recap March-June 2017 Fulbright Scholar Gala Presentation Dinner - Fifty-one Australian and American Fulbright Scholars were awarded at a ceremony held in Parliament House, Canberra, 8 March
Exchange Alumni Reception, organised and hosted by the U.S. Consulate General Sydney to recognise alumni of bilateral exchange programs, 22 March
Roundtable Discussion with Ambassador Jeffrey Bleich, organised by the Commission at the University of Melbourne. Amb. Bleich discussed remarks from his March 2017 Universities Australia keynote address, 4 April
Research Seminar by Professor Greg Alexander, U.S. Senior Scholar. Greg presented his research into aged care and clinical informatics at Flinders University, 4 April
Mini-Symposia by Professor Benny Freeman, U.S. Distinguished Chair in Science, Technology and Innovation (CSIRO). Talks on Synthesis, Characterization and Modelling of Gas Permeation and Separation Properties of ThermallyRearranged Polymers at University of Melbourne and Swinburne University, 7 and 10 April
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TEDxFulbrightMelbourne, organised by the U.S. Consulate General Melbourne, with the support of the Commission. A lineup of Fulbright alumni discussed the theme A Certain Optimism: Changing the Nature of the Game at the Victoria Comprehensive Cancer Centre (VCCC), 27 April
Public Lectures by Professor Valerie Hudson, U.S. Distinguished Chair in Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (ANU). Valerie discussed foreign policy, women, peace and security at Macquarie University and University of Tasmania,10 and 24 May
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Western Australia Fulbright Alumni Reception, hosted by the U.S. Consul General Perth to recognise Fulbright Scholars and alumni from Western Australia, 16 May
Public Lecture by Professor Angus Rupert, U.S. Distinguished Chair in Advanced Science and Technology (DST Group). Enhancing Warfighter Performance saw Angus present his research into multisensory cueing technology to the Defence Science & Technology Group, Canberra, 19 May
Public Lectures by Professor Yolanda Moses, U.S. Distinguished Chair in Cultural Competence (National Centre for Cultural Competence), Charles Darwin University (Universities and colleges as sites of global citizenship) and University of Melbourne (Cross-cultural comparatives of inclusion), 23 May, 1 June
Fulbright Scholarships information session, Northern Territory Reception, organised by Charles Darwin University, and Fulbright NT Alumni Dinner organised by the Commission, Darwin, 23 May
Public Lecture by Professor David Stoesz, U.S. Distinguished Chair in Applied Public Policy (Flinders University and Carnegie Mellon University Australia) presented his research into social policy and public welfare at the Australia Davos Connection, 26 May
New Fulbright Australia-U.S. Alliance Studies Scholarships announced by the Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the U.S. State Department at AUSMIN 2017, Sydney, 6 June
Upcoming Events: TEDxFulbrightCanberra, organised by the Commission and funded by the U.S. Embassy Canberra. A team of Fulbright alumni will discuss the theme Empathy & Transformation at the Ann Harding Conference Centre, University of Canberra, 6 July TEDxFulbrightSydney, organised by the Commission and funded by the U.S. Embassy Canberra. A team of Fulbright alumni will discuss the theme Knowledge, Reason & Understanding at the University of Sydney Business School, 12 October
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Profile
- Ambassador Jeffrey Bleich
The crowd of Vice Chancellors, government representatives, journalists, and distinguished university executives falls silent as he approaches the podium at the National Press Club, Canberra. There is an odd feeling in the air; a tension that permeates the room as the audience awaits the news that this smartly-dressed American herald bears. The question on everybody’s lips: In a dislocated world, do universities have a case to answer? Former U.S. Ambassador to Australia Jeffrey Bleich makes his polite acknowledgements and finally addresses the waiting crowd. “In the past, whenever I've been asked questions about politics or elections, I always did what diplomats have long done: I thought very carefully, before saying… nothing.” The reaction is palpable as hunched shoulders begin to relax, pensive expressions break into smiles; the stifling tension eases. Yet the gravity of the topic remains, and Bleich does not mince words. 8
“The recent U.S. election has evoked a profound sense of uncertainty across the political spectrum. The things we had counted on suddenly, and surprisingly, proved incorrect. We are not sure what we can rely on anymore, and it has shaken many people's confidence about the path forward.
“It is times like these, when good friends like the U.S. and Australia put aside conventions and get real about what we need to do together. And that is what I hope to do this morning.” It is this candidness; this casual shift between irreverent humour and profound insight that makes Jeff Bleich such an engaging speaker.
International exchange.. actually increases our prosperity, but more than anything, it makes us better people.
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When I had the opportunity to sit down with him following his March 2017 Universities Australia keynote address, I had to grapple with a peculiar sense of déjà vu because, regardless of whether you’re chatting with Bleich one-one-one or sitting in a crowd of hundreds, it always seems as if he is speaking to you. When talking about his time as U.S. Ambassador, he is refreshingly frank. “In 2009, when I came in, the U.S.-Australia relationship had always been a very positive, strong, productive one going back decades, but there were some fault lines. “I think there was a lot of concern among young people in Australia about U.S. leadership based upon the global financial crisis, which was not a good look in terms of our economic stewardship, and also based upon the unpopularity of the Iraq war and our leadership in the National Security space, so we had a number of questions to answer. “One of my goals was to be very transparent about these things, to be honest about the shortcomings and mistakes that we'd made. I thought that was important as a way of ensuring that the unique aspect of our relationship, the closeness and the trust, wasn't sacrificed, and that if anything we took a bad set of challenges and we grew stronger because of them.”
Bleich's eyes take on a particular gleam when the conversation turns to his current role with the Fulbright Program; after Obama appointed him to the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board in November 2014 he was elected Vice-Chair in 2016, then Chair this year. But even back during his tenure as Ambassador, Bleich always had a soft spot for Fulbright. “I had admired a number of Fulbright Scholars and the program itself, but it's one thing to know about it and it's another thing entirely to attend all of the Fulbright events, meet the Fulbrighters, and be fully engaged with the program. The more time I devoted to this, the more I appreciated the genius of what Senator Fulbright had imagined when he created the program. “He understood that the only real protection we have long term against missteps in foreign policy, against disagreements erupting into conflict, and in just improving the quality of our own understanding of the world and appreciation of it, was international exchange. The more we knew other people, the better we would be as people. The more we understood about our world, the more secure we would feel.” “Sitting down with members of congress and being able to talk about what Fulbright does has made me more convinced than ever that this is an essential part of our prosperity and security in the world. When Fulbright started there were barely any international exchange programs, now it's a 36 billion dollar industry in the United States. So it actually increases our prosperity, but more than anything, it makes us better people.”
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In a dislocated world, however, international exchange and intercultural understanding are of crucial importance, yet are increasingly overshadowed by populist rhetoric and isolationism. Bleich is adamant that the Fulbright Program has a role to play in the restoration of public trust in the values of a free and open global order: “Whatever you’re worried about, the things that you want most are prosperity and security. The Fulbright program delivers both. “In terms of prosperity, American education and Australian education are exports, in part because we have developed outstanding educational systems that are the envy of the world, and by bringing scholars to our country we actually make money. “In fact, there are a number of countries that contribute five times as much as the U.S. to the Fulbright program because they want to be part of it, so it's actually a very good program in terms of all the leverage it creates.
“In terms of security - there is a reason why all of our generals and military leaders say that this is an invaluable part of our security. The entire cost of the Fulbright Program for the United States is the cost of one C17 cargo plane, and we have built relationships with 160 different nations, and we have exchanged the best and brightest thinkers from those countries. “When [Fulbright Scholars] come to the U.S, they invariably return with a much more nuanced, and much more positive, sense of the United States. “So when the Generals say this gives us a better understanding, and when something goes wrong we know there is a person there who has trusting relations with leaders on the other side. Someone who can pick up the phone and come in, not as a faceless American, but as someone who they know, who they trust, and who they can talk to - that is invaluable, that saves lives, and it makes us more secure.
"It also attracts the best and the brightest to our universities, and when you look at some of the people who have held positions in business - the head of Virgin Galactic, the Chair of Intel, some of the biggest U.S. companies were either founded by, or led by, people who initially were exposed to the U.S. via Fulbright, and so it has paid back the United States many, many times over. Prof Uma Kothari, Jeffrey Bleich, and Maxine Mckew, speaking at a University of Melbourne panel event hosted by Vice Chancellor Prof Glyn Davis
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Fulbright Commission: You oversaw the period that saw Australia as a fulcrum for President Obama's rebalance to the Asia-Pacific. What were your experiences during this dynamic time? Jeffrey Bleich: "It was a wonderful time to be here and I think a real appreciation, on America's part, of the importance of Australia. "For a long time, for a variety of reasons, we had been Atlantic-focused. Not only are our traditional trade routes from England, but also our efforts in WW1 and WW2 had been largely focused in European theatres, and then a number of challenges in the Middle East had kept us focused in that part of the world. It was only as the economies of [APAC] started to rise that policymakers started to appreciate how much more we needed to do in this region than we were already doing. "We had had decades and decades, particularly since WW2, of stewardship of the oceans and working with our close allies in this region, but it was only with the great rise in Asia that policy-makers in D.C. began to look across that pond and appreciate that we had to increase the tempo in which we were operating here. So that involved a great deal of shifts in terms of our diplomacy, a number of shifts in terms of our economic rebalancing, and also our national security laydown, and in each one of those Australia was the leading partner with us. "It was a magical time to be working in diplomacy on such a broad set of issues."
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What do you think the key challenges are for the incoming U.S. Ambassador? "Well I think, again, we are going through another transition point. The world is being disrupted by forces that are bigger than either one of our two countries. "Massive changes in technology and globalisation have rewritten a number of rules about how peoples’ lives will go, mostly in positive ways - we are going to live longer and have more opportunities, and we're going to be more integrated than we've ever been before in human history. "But it's very dislocating, it's very disrupting, and entire industries are already feeling the strain of that. So a new administration coming in must first articulate a vision for how to address that. It can't be top down, it's a partnership. "In addition to that, we are already in the midst of a number of things that we have to keep doing. Our [U.S.] rebalance to Asia has to continue. "This is the centre of gravity, economically and in terms of demographic change, and also an area fraught with longstanding animosities among nations. The U.S. and Australia are uniquely positioned to be a bulwark against all the prosperity here going in the wrong direction."
In 2014, following your posting as Ambassador, you took up a position on the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. What drew you to the Fulbright Program? "A number of things. One of the roles that you have as U.S. Ambassador in Australia is that you are the Honorary Co-Chair of the Fulbright Program with the Prime Minister. "I experienced that Fulbright effect on a regular basis when I was in the ambassador role, and so when I left the ambassadorship and the President said I'd like you to keep helping me out there, I took two other roles, but the number-one role on my list was to serve on the Fulbright Board. It has been an enormous honour, and has confirmed all of my hopes and dreams about the importance of this program. "The line that I think of often (I thought someone else had written it but I actually wrote it myself at one point), was 'the measure of success in any battle is in the peace that follows,' and after WW2 the measure of success was, could we keep a peace? "We did two things: we did the Marshall Plan; to actually rebuild the infrastructure of our enemies; and we did the Fulbright program to say ‘let's understand the world better than we ever had before, and engage with the most thoughtful and outward-looking people we can find everywhere in the world,’ and we have had an extraordinary period of peace and prosperity since."
Whatever you’re worried about, the things that you want most are prosperity and security. The Fulbright program delivers both.
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Jeffrey Bleich addresses the crowd as the Keynote Speaker at the 2017 Higher Education Conference, National Press Club
After two years on the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board you are now Chairman - how has your experience of the role been so far? "It has been an extraordinary opportunity working with a fabulous Board, amongst university presidents, senators, entrepreneurs; people with these magnificent careers from all walks of life, great scholars and great thinkers all committed to these issues. Working with them has been inspiring, but then also at every meeting we are able to meet with people who are running programs, people who are Fulbright scholars, people who are giving insights into how to improve Fulbright, and innovating to make the program more accessible, more relevant, as the digital age takes hold. That has been just edifying - I've learnt so much about how the world works because of that. "The other thing I've gotten is a real appreciation for the political challenges that exchange programs face right now, and I think that people don't fully understand how important they have become, because they’ve become a part of the wallpaper - we just assume there has always been a Fulbright program. So, part of what we've done is to refresh the Fulbright brand to help people understand its current relevance today, and to re-engage our alumni network.
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“The thing about a program like Fulbright that no one can appreciate is that, while there are other exchange programs, there is no program that has 370,000 alums, heads of government, heads of state, Macarthur Grant recipients and Nobel Prize winners, and this tremendous network of people who understand the world, and who can help reach out and explain it.�
In your March 2017 Universities Australia address, you spoke about how a corrosion of public trust; specifically, trust in government, media, and (political science) experts, contributed to the unexpected November 2016 election result. What role do you see the Fulbright Program playing in the restoration of that trust? "I think it's easy to take democracies for granted. If you grew up in a democracy, you have a sense that, of course you would have a voice in the selection of your leaders, and that there would be checks and balances on any of them overstepping their bounds; of course the media would provide the information that you needed - timely, relevant, accurate information; and of course the institutions of government, the parties and political leaders, would deal with the issues that they needed to deal with. I think over time there's been a sense within each of these institutions that someone would take care of it. "For example, media. News became less about timely, accurate, relevant information than entertainment, offering opinions and offering entertainment to keep eyeballs on the screen. People have less reliable information to draw upon and they started relying on alternative news sources, a lot of which were unreliable. I think among voters, Australia doesn't have this challenge because you have universal voting, but in the U.S. voter participation has been falling, particularly in off-year elections and midterms, but even in presidential years we think it's a big year if 60% show up. That means that if it's 31 to 29, 31% of people are deciding policies for all of America. "I think the political parties have been more focused on how to cleverly hamper the other side than to actually solve problems. In terms of elections, their focus has been less on identifying real problems and their unique solutions, the policy that differentiates them from the other side, than they have been about slicing-and-dicing the demographic and finding a handful of issues that one side feels passionately about.
Donald Trump captured that sense among people, that he was actually a candidate of hope. "Over time some rot has seeped into these institutions because people haven't been preserving them. So when someone comes along and says "you can't trust the government, the parties are just all engaged in stalemate, the media is untrustworthy they are not looking after you," the only person you can trust is someone who has no experience with government, doesn't trust either party, doesn't trust media, and shares your disdain for all of that - people are drawn to this idea that if the government won't solve our problems, maybe we need to shake it up and get someone who is prepared to condemn the entire system and just start from scratch. I think that explains a lot about where this election results came from, and Donald Trump captured that sense among people that he was actually a candidate of hope, that he could scramble things and maybe they would come out better. "I think what Fulbright offers is two things: one is a perspective on how other countries operate without this sort of government. I was just at a Fulbright event and we had people from Pakistan, Iran, Zimbabwe, Mozambique - a number of countries that have had challenges in their leadership. When Americans talk to them, learn how their governments operate, how most of the world’s populations live and the experiences they have with the government, it starts making us appreciate much more the wisdom of our system and the need for them to invest in it; the need for them to take responsibility for our democracy. I think just having that perspective from people of other countries makes us both more proud of our system, but also more responsible for preserving it, and strengthening it. "I think the other thing is that they bring fresh ideas. Fulbright scholars from Australia come and start talking about universal voting and Americans start to think 'well that's a pretty interesting idea'. "People who are technologists talk about ways that you can have real-time fact-checking so that false information doesn't go viral before someone has the chance to expose its dishonesty. I think again there is an opportunity for us to learn from these ideas and draw upon them. I think that those are two of the biggest ways in which Fulbright makes our democracy stronger."
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What do you envision for the future of international exchange programs, such as Fulbright, that champion the values of globalisation and international education? "We are going through a major tectonic shift in how our economies work. This happened about a hundred years ago with the Second Industrial Revolution, where suddenly you had all these new technologies. In a 40-year period, suddenly you've got automobiles, aeroplanes, telephones, motion pictures, photographs, light bulbs, the internal combustion engine, factories, consumer appliances, and it's all happening at once. People were overwhelmed, and their lives were transformed. "During that burst of technology and creativity you had a number of dislocating effects, and people started blaming immigrants, they started demonising one-another. There was a real move for protectionism, a real divide between urban and rural communities, and a rise in extremist political views - a lot of the things that you're seeing happening around the world. They had a Gilded Age, two world wars and a Great Depression; a number of things that we'd like to avoid, so there are lessons to be learned from how you maintain an effective democratic order during this kind of massive economic shift. "I think that the Fulbright program is one that allows you to see how these different government systems actually work in practice, and things that sound appealing from a distance seem a little less attractive once you get up close to them - authoritarianism and some of these systems that seem appealing when you're uncertain and looking for strong leadership. "The other aspect of it is that Fulbrighters develop really interesting new ideas. When they leave their home countries, just the fact of being in a new place; new language, new culture, a new set of challenges, expands their thinking and they come up with ideas that they never would have if they had just stayed on their own little patch of earth. We have a lot of issues to solve during this period, and building bonds of trust, coming up with new ideas, and exposing the reality of false ideas is a big thing that Fulbright does, and does better than any other educational program in the world."
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What advice would you give to any aspiring Fulbright scholars? "First, if you don't have one, you should apply for one. One thing that I've been surprised by is how many people think that it's too hard to get a Fulbright and won't even bother to apply. In fact, we are looking for greater diversity, we want people coming out of more rural communities that haven't produced a lot of Fulbright scholars in the past. "Members of the board, we review 8000 recommendations every year, and so that is one of the things we look for - are we getting that kind of diversity, are we bringing in new voices, new perspectives, new institutions? So don't be deterred by the fact that you don't have and Nobel Prize yet. "I think the second thing I'd say is, if you get a Fulbright scholarship, really experience the country. It is one thing to do your research there, and to collaborate with others who share your interest while you're there, but the real Fulbright effect comes from things that are much more subtle. "When you go to a country that you've never been to before, the sky looks different, the air smells different, the experience feels unfamiliar and it heightens your senses, and that makes you more aware; it just makes your synapses fire differently. "The more people that you meet, the more that you get out into that country, the more of the Fulbright effect you'll experience, and not only will it make your research better, but it will broaden your own thinking about the world as a whole.
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"What I find most interesting is that not only do people tend to come to a country with a number of preconceived notions, then discover that many of those are wrong, but also when they come back to the U.S. or their home country, they also see their home through different eyes and appreciate it more than they did before.
You were once profiled by LAWDRAGON as one of the true ‘Rockstars’ of law – How would you comment on this title? "I think my kids said it best. They said, “America has officially run out of rock stars now.” Although I have to say, rock has been around long enough now that apparently it's ok to be a bald Rockstar… "The way I think about articles like that is really, if they provide value, it's in letting people know that you can have a rich career in law, not simply by representing the wealthiest and most powerful, but by making society more just, and that the satisfaction that you get as a lawyer comes, not just from how much money you may have made in a year or how famous your client was, but actually over time the cases that I remember most, and that I care about most deeply, were the ones where the person had no voice at all and were marginalised. "You were their champion, you were their lifeline. You were the person who made it possible for them to be heard and to receive their share of justice. Wealthy people, powerful people, they tend to do ok, even without lawyers, and you hope you can add some marginal difference in their lives. "But for people who are the most vulnerable, you make all the difference in their life, and that was the most satisfying kind of work I ever did."
Just prior to your departure from Australia in 2013, you remarked in a Canberra Times article that you would miss ‘Running, hiking… and Skywhale’. I wonder if you’ve had a chance to catch up with Skywhale in the years since? "Well, not in that order – Skywhale is number one! "The images of Skywhale seem to dog me on the Internet. There are images of me, you know, gazing lovingly at Skywhale… Skywhale was by far one of the more unusual things about being in Australia. "But you get here and, again, I had the Fulbright effect - there is wildlife here that doesn't exist anywhere else on the planet, and I thought I had seen it all until Skywhale, this hot air balloon that seemed to have some pretty ridiculous features, came sailing over the U.S. Embassy and I thought, ‘OK, Australia you are constantly full of surprises.’ "The thing is that Australians, they mocked it, but for me I thought, boy, this is the beauty of Australia. It's cheeky and it's bold, it's unlike anything else in the world. It is Australians being willing to have a go at anything. "For me, Skywhale was a metaphor: keep looking up in the sky, because you never know what you're going to find."
Skywhale was a metaphor: keep looking up in the sky, because you never know what you're going to find.
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To Berkeley and Beyondthem Tracey Steinrucken | 2015 QLD Postgraduate | Western Sydney University
Lake Tahoe
University of California, Berkeley
When I look back on my Fulbright experience, I struggle to work out how I managed to fit so much into nine months.
Bear claws
Not only did I complete complicated laboratory, fieldbased and analytical research for my PhD at UC Berkeley, but I was fortunate enough to experience so much more of what the U.S. has to offer. For me, the whole point of applying for the Fulbright was to make the most of every opportunity that comes my way. Here’s how I did that: I visited Yosemite National Park three times between September and April. We saw bear cubs and a bobcat, hiked ten miles without seeing a human, camped under the stars, and marvelled at what I believe to be some of the most spectacular landscapes the world has to offer.
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If there’s one thing that California does right, it’s maintaining their National Parks, and Yosemite is the perfect example. Getting hold of camping gear is easy, and a must-do is s’mores on the campfire. My favourite smell in the world is that of sunbaked pine needles, so bushwalking through the moss-covered forests and past giant sequoias is an absolute pleasure.
I got lost (briefly!) in the forests of Lake Tahoe on a snowshoe hike on Christmas Day. We stayed at my advisor’s cabin at a ski resort and explored the freshly-powdered slopes and forests each day for the perfect white Christmas. We also drove around the 490 km2 lake (with our newly-acquired snowchains!) and stopped at South Lake Tahoe for some ice skating. Like Yosemite, Lake Tahoe is spectacular in summer and winter – a haven for water sports, snow sports, exploring and camping. It’s also only 3 hours from San Francisco so most of my trips there were weekend road trips. I also joined a ‘Meet-Up’ adventure group and some of my weekends away included rock climbing, canyoning and white water rafting in the surrounding Sierra Nevada Mountains.
Berkeley lab work
Yosemite National Park
Fieldwork - Southern Arizona
I found out that two days at the Grand Canyon is definitely not enough. As an add-on to some field work I had scheduled in southern Arizona, I did a road trip to Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon. It was November and I was surprised at the subzero morning temperatures, but after a hike halfway down the canyon, you tend to warm up pretty fast. I intend to return one day and do a trip down the Colorado River through the canyon, stopping and camping along the way.
During my fieldwork we stayed at a University of Arizona research station almost on the Mexican border and explored the surroundings, finding snakes, coyotes and pigs called javelinas. Southern Arizona was surprisingly beautiful and as it was the end of a rainy autumn, the greenery was stunning – in particular the millions of sentinel-like cacti dotting the hills around Tucson. Coyote - Southern Arizona
Grand Canyon
Grand Canyon
The greenery was stunning – in particular the millions of sentinel-like cacti dotting the hills around Tucson.
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Yosemite National Park
Atlanta enrichment seminar
Atlanta enrichment seminar
Atlanta enrichment seminar
I signed up for a Fulbright Enrichment Seminar along with hundreds of other international Fulbrighters in the U.S. The four-day trips are organised by IIE and Fulbright, and funded by the State Department. You have some choice about timing but don’t know where you’re going until a few weeks beforehand.
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The Enrichment Seminar I was allocated was in Atlanta, Georgia and was on American Politics (during the lead-up to the primaries). It was the perfect time to learn about how the U.S. Electoral College works, to listen to and speak with political reporters who had interviewed each candidate, to run a mock election of our own, and to spend time volunteering for local charities in Atlanta. As well as meeting other Fulbrighters from around the world, local Atlantan families signed up to host small groups of us for dinner one evening. The discussions were wildly entertaining and a great way to get the American perspective on life and make new friends.
Atlanta enrichment seminar
I went to the Super Bowl and didn’t pay for it. Yes, you read that correctly. I knew someone who knew someone and we signed up as volunteers selling programs at the 50th Super Bowl held at the San Francisco 49ers’ Levi stadium. When one talks about immersing yourself in American culture – this was the pinnacle, and one which I happily brag about as a highlight of my Fulbright experience. It was a long day with the highest level of security I’d ever seen, thousands of staff and volunteers, rich and famous ticket holders, and fantastic entertainment that we got to enjoy between selling $40 programs and posters. Other than the Super Bowl I also attended college football games (Go Bears!), rugby and hurling matches, and a San Francisco Giants baseball game. Sport in America is something else - it’s definitely not all about the sport. The halftime shows, cheer squads, marching bands and stadium food are testament to that.
NFL Super Bowl 50
SF Giants baseball game
I visited Duke University, Georgetown and Penn State, and attended conferences in Pennsylvania and Pasadena (CA). I visited a colleague of my advisors in Australia who is a professor of mycology at Duke University in North Carolina, and experienced his family’s wonderful hospitality and the southern-hipster beauty and delicious food of Durham and Duke.
Then, a new Fulbright friend I’d met in Atlanta invited me to visit her at Georgetown University in Washington, DC and with only two days there I managed to see the Library of Congress, Capitol Hill, the Natural History Museum, the Air and Space Museum, the National Gallery of Art (where I got a behind-the-scenes tour thanks to a curator I met at the Penn State conference), the White House, the Lincoln Memorial and of course Georgetown Campus. At Penn State I presented my research at a mini mycology conference and went mushroom picking in the woods nearby with other delegates.
And in Pasadena I met leaders in the field of plant pathology and lapped up the southern Californian sunshine on multiple conference excursions. Overall, I definitely made the most of my time in the U.S. and yet there are still so many things I’d love to experience in the future such as a trip to Yellowstone, Bryce Canyon and Oregon. I met lots of local Californians, joined a social soccer team, went to pregame tailgate events and even attended a Bernie Sanders rally.
Sequoia National Park
With all the similarities between the U.S. and Australia, the differences stood out more with every new experience, and yet the people remained as friendly and helpful as ever. After all, the Fulbright is about more than just academic outcomes – it’s about cross-cultural exchange, bilateral experiences and opening up your mind to new adventures.
- Tracey Steinrucken
Lake Tahoe
National History Museum
Lincoln Memorial, Washington DC
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Santa Monica Pier
Sunset over Golden Gate Bridge
Nanodiamonds are a Cell's Best Friend Nanodiamonds—synthetic industrial diamonds only a few nanometers in size— have recently attracted considerable attention because of the potential they offer for the targeted delivery of vaccines and cancer drugs as well as for other uses. Thus far, options for imaging nanodiamonds have been limited. Now a team of investigators based at the Massachusetts General Hospital Martinos Center has devised a means of tracking nanodiamonds noninvasively with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), opening up a host of new applications. They reported their findings in the online journal Nature Communications. “With this study, we showed we could produce biomedically relevant MR images using nanodiamonds as the source of contrast in the images and that we could switch the contrast on and off at will,” says David Waddington, lead author of the paper and Fulbright alum from the University of Sydney.
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“With competing strategies, the nanodiamonds must be prepared externally and then injected into the body, where they can only be imaged for a few hours at most.
"However, as our technique is biocompatible, we can continue imaging for indefinite periods of time. This raises the possibility of tracking the delivery of nanodiamond-drug compounds for a variety of diseases and providing vital information on the efficacy of different treatment options.” David, a member of co-author Professor David Reilly’s team at the University of Sydney’s new Nanoscience Hub, began this work three years ago as part of a Fulbright Scholarship awarded early in his graduate work. His time at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences & Technology set in motion a series of collaborations that led to this recent breakthrough. “If I could sum up the [scholarship] year in one word it would be ‘defining.’ He said. “From a professional perspective, the Fulbright experience transformed my understanding of the way scientific progress happens. “Beforehand, I viewed research in terms of incremental advances, but afterwards I found myself thinking about research efforts in terms of the vision, relationships, facilities and drive that enables great work to happen.
Image - CanStock/everythingpossible
“This transformation came with my exposure to such a breadth of world-leading research groups during Fulbright and has improved the way I carry out my own research.” Following the completion of his Fulbright Scholarship, David played a crucial role in the Reilly group’s early successes with nanodiamond imaging, including a 2015 paper in Nature Communications. He then sought to extend the potential of the approach by collaborating with Associate Professor Matthew Rosen in the Low-Field Imaging Laboratory at the Martinos Center, and Professor Ronald Walsworth at Harvard University, also a co-author of the current study. Associate Professor Rosen’s group is a world leader in the area of ultra-low-field magnetic resonance imaging, a technique that proved essential to the development of nanodiamond-enhanced MRI.
David gearing up for a nanodiamond imaging experiment: (left) Loading the MRI scanner. (top-right) Close-up of the custom hardware required for nanodiamond-enhanced MRI. (bottom right) Preparing nanodiamond samples in the chemistry lab.
The researchers have noted several possible applications for their new approach to nanodiamond imaging. These include the accurate detection of lymph node tumors, which can aid in the treatment of metastatic prostate cancer, and exploring the permeability of the blood-brain barrier, which can play an important role in the management of ischemic stroke. Because it provides a measurable MR signal for periods of over a month, the technique could benefit applications such as monitoring the response to therapy. Included in treatment monitoring are applications in the burgeoning field of personalized medicine. “The delivery of highly specific drugs is strongly correlated with successful patient outcomes,” says David, who was honoured with the Journal of Magnetic Resonance Young Scientist Award at the 2016 Experimental NMR Conference in recognition of this work. “However, the response to such drugs often varies significantly on an individual basis. The ability to image and track the delivery of these nanodiamond-drug compounds would, therefore, be greatly advantageous to the development of personalized treatments.” The researchers continue to explore the potential of the technique and are now planning a detailed study of the approach in an animal model, while also investigating the behaviour of different nanodiamond-drug complexes and imaging them with the new capability.
David has high hopes for the future of nanoparticle research and his bilateral collaborations. "When it comes to potential medical applications of nanoparticles, we're still only in the discovery phase, and that's why it's such a great time to have people moving between the facilities at MGH and the University of Sydney. As we move into the next phase of our nanodiamond work, we know that, more than just taking measurements, it's the intangible exchange of ideas between people working in very different environments that will lead to the next breakthrough." Other authors of the Nature Communications paper include Mathieu Sarracanie and Najat Salameh of the Martinos Center; Huiliang Zhang and David R. Glenn of the Walsworth team at Harvard University; and Ewa Rej, Torsten Gaebel, and Thomas Boele of the Reilly team at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems, University of Sydney.
Image - Nanotechmag
David Waddington | 2013 Postgraduate Scholar in Nuclear Science & Technology (ANSTO) | The University of Sydney Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences & Technology
David Waddington is a PhD candidate at the University of Sydney currently working at the Australian Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology (AINST) with Professor David Reilly.
His research aims to develop an entirely new bio-probe based on the detection of nontoxic nanoparticles in biological environments. By magnetizing nanocrystals of materials such as diamond and ruby through the manipulation of electrons and nuclei, the goal is to develop a new modality for tracking drug delivery based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the gold standard of noninvasive imaging. Such novel methods, based on the quantum control of matter, stand to open a vast scientific frontier and promise entirely new tools for the early detection and investigation of disease. Awarded a 2013 Fulbright scholarship, he has worked on nanoparticle tracking with leading biomedical imaging groups at Harvard University and the Massachusetts General Hospital. His work has been published in leading scientific journals such as Nature Communications. Completing his doctoral studies this year, David will continue to pursue opportunities at the intersection of quantum physics and biomedicine.
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A Fulbright Alumni Archives
In 1958 my father, Kelton ‘Kel’ McDonald, was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to spend a year as a teacher at the high school in Springfield, a suburb of Philadelphia - Pennsylvania's largest city. Kel was thirty years old, married with three small children, and taught English and History at the high school in Gilgandra, New South Wales - a small town of 2000 that is 500 km northwest of Sydney. Gilgandra was his first posting after graduating university and qualifying as a teacher. He married Roma, the daughter of a local businessman who was also the Shire President, and had settled into the rural community. The Fulbright Scholarship offered the chance to experience a wider world, and in August 1958 the five of us were packed into a Qantas Constellation airliner to San Francisco.
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(Top to bottom) Sen. J. William Fulbright greets Bill Speers, 1958 Fulbright Scholar Sen. Fulbright with 1958 Scholars (Germany) Christmas Shopping, Philadelphia PA
My Father, the Fulbrighter (1958)
The flight took something like a day and a half to cross the Pacific, with refuelling stops in Fiji and Hawaii as well as a detour around an atomic bomb test in the mid-Pacific. The day after arriving we boarded a train to Washington DC where Kel went through an induction and briefing for a few days before travelling on to Springfield. This may well have been when he met Senator Fulbright with several other Australian scholarship awardees. A rental property had been found in Powell Rd, Springfield as well as a ’53 Chevrolet which cost $395. The house was only a couple of blocks from the high school which made it easy for Kel’s job in the English Department and close to the elementary school where I was in first grade. My two younger sisters were at home with our mother.
23 (T. to B.) Springfield High School S.H.S. 8th Grade morning pledge Student Cafeteria 'Australia Exhibit ' at S.H.S. Graham (5) and Anne (3) McDonald
Jack Curtis' '53 Chevy, $395 - working
The Chevrolet got a lot of use over the next year. During the school year there were roadtrips to western Pennsylvania, New Orleans via Tennessee and down the Mississippi, Palm Beach, Florida for Christmas, and up the east coast to Boston through New York.
Grand Tutons, WY
Empire State Building, NYC
At the end of the 1959 school year we drove back across America. The first section was up to Quebec, Canada which coincided with the Queen’s visit that year. From there it was across the Midwest through Detroit and Chicago, Iowa then South Dakota and Montana to Yellowstone National Park.
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From there it was back into Canada then down the West Coast through Washington and Oregon to Nevada.
Las Vegas, NV
After the Grand Canyon it was on to the Mexican border at Mexicali before heading back to San Francisco by Highway 1 through Los Angeles. Kel was an enthusiastic, if not particularly skilled photographer.
Atlantic City Boardwalk
Stanford campus life (ca 1960) PACE Photos by Jones-Ansel Adams
He used slide film in a basic 35mm viewfinder camera, and photographed the staff and students at Springfield High School, sporting events, the town itself and activities that were going on.
Black Hills SD
Springfield Supermarket
Route 66 Oil Well, WY
Grauman's Chinese Theatre, Hollywood CA
Coney Island, NYC
The road trips can be traced by the slides, which were numbered, captioned and kept in solid wooden boxes. Frustratingly, much of the film has deteriorated over the years but it still a fascinating document of the family’s year in America. That year stimulated a family interest in the wider world and travel in general. His career back in Australia moved to teachers’ colleges rather than schools and that gave the family the opportunity to live in both New Guinea and New Zealand in later years when Kel spent time working in both countries. Hope you enjoy some of these pictures of our time in the United States almost 60 years ago.
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- Graham McDonald, son of Kelton McDonald, 1958 Fulbright Scholar.
S.H.S. Pep Rally
S.H.S. Basketball
Jeremy with his daughter, Dr Rosalind Hearder
Villanova vs Westch
Fulbright Scholarship Application Tips What makes a Fulbright Scholar? We asked some of our distinguished Fulbright Scholarship Selection Committee Members to provide some insight into precisely what characteristics they look for in an ideal candidate, and what makes the Fulbright Program unique.
What do you look for in an ideal Fulbright candidate?
What are your insider tips for creating a successful Fulbright application?
Professor Brenda Cherednichenko: Essentially Fulbright candidates will be excellent scholars who have a strong affinity through their work to the U.S. and scholarly endeavours there. They tend to have a point of difference – diversity is important, whether it is your field of study, your perspective on your work, your commitment over an extended period of time to a particular issue or question, and/or have a very personal connection to an issue. We want to know what makes your work special to you and others.
Prof Cherednichenko: Make sure you are clear about the significance of the connection between your work the Fulbright. Be clear, focused and true to yourself and your project goals. A little humility always impresses me. Do not over claim what you will achieve or how important your work is - it should speak for itself.
Mr William Furnish: An ideal Fulbright candidate is well-rounded, in addition to the typical Fulbright scholar's superlative academic credentials. They demonstrate that they have a life outside the lab or library and have a story to tell. Dr Dennis Foley: Passion is a key criterion, that is a genuine love for their work, their work being for the improvement of mankind, be it in art, music, medicine, law or science, and they also need to uphold ethical values and be an outstanding representative of our country - someone who will do the project anyway with or without Fulbright assistance. They have the tenacity of being a winner.
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Mr Furnish: When writing your application, put yourself in the shoes of the selection committee members. Does it stand out? Does it tell enough about you to make the committee want to ask more? Have someone else read it and give an honest critique. And resist the urge to cut and paste the same answer into different parts of the application, even though it may be arguably responsive to the question. That's repetitive to the reader and a waste of an opportunity to tell more of your story. Dr Foley: Honesty, without arrogance, humility in selling yourself without bragging. Being the best in your field by providing service to your community, by being a volunteer, being a good member of society… and at the state level selling yourself and your project at the interview – the applicant needs raw rational passion regarding what they do and want to do in the U.S. This must be combined with a need to do it there, if there are alternatives in Australia then you don’t need a Fulbright. Your work must be stifled in Australia, you need to go to the U.S. and use their facilities to develop your dream and you must have the support of those specialists in the States.
In your opinion, what is the most challenging part of the Fulbright application process? What would be your advice for overcoming this challenge? Prof Cherednichenko: Being academically excellent is not enough. Applicants often forget that they are applying to represent Australia and their discipline through a Fulbright scholarship. They assume that academic excellence is sufficient. It is not. The Fulbright is centred on the importance of the relationship between two countries in the advancement of knowledge and harmony. Mr Furnish: For many applicants, the interview itself can be nerve-wracking. It's not easy to sit before a group of strangers and be judged. The surest way to get your nerves under control is to practice. While the questions vary year to year, you can assume that the committee will always want to know about your proposed research project - practice that until you can do it in your sleep. Dr Foley: The most challenging part is: a) For the individual - it's writing that winning application, getting referees that know you and know your attributes and can write about them, (some referee statements kill good applications effectively ending great projects) and its being able to sell your project and the social wellbeing that will be derived from your undertaking it. b) For the selector it’s to choose the best of the best as the standard is so high, but it's high in many ways, academically and in the quality of the individual person’s attributes.
Passion is a key criterion, that is a genuine love for their work...be it in art, music, medicine, law or science.
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In your opinion, what makes Fulbright unique among other international exchange programs?
What advice would you give to those who are considering applying, but are unsure whether they meet the academic standard?
Prof Cherednichenko: The capacity to advance knowledge and communities through truly invested education relationships between the U.S. and Australia is the point of distinction for Fulbright, in the spirit of Senator Fulbright’s vision and challenge to all of us. This demands that we consider diversity of scholars, disciplines and international relationships as a central focus of the allocation of scholarships.
Prof Cherednichenko: Academic excellence is certainly a great element in an application. But it is the duty of the Fulbright selection committees to look for excellence in a range of areas, and from scholars from diverse backgrounds and in diverse fields. Academic excellence can be demonstrated relative to opportunity and this should be made clear in any application.
Mr Furnish: Fulbright has an incredible prestige associated with it that opens a lot of doors worldwide.
Mr Furnish: Contact the Fulbright Commission and find out when an info session is next happening in your area. If you're at a university, chances are there's a Fulbright alumnus on faculty I'm sure they'd be happy to discuss.
Dr Foley: Undoubtedly the experience, the venture into research often in the best labs with some of the best researchers, the people who wrote the text books that you used as an undergrad. It’s also the freedom of undertaking research without the reporting restrictions of the ARC and bureaucratic timewasting that comes with some research providers. Finally, it's the understanding that you are in a research club with few peers, and that is most humbling, 17 years on I am still in shock that I am there. This is a recognition for your work which you spend the rest of your academic career upholding.
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Dr Foley: The person wins the award, the academic standard, yes it must be substantial however it’s the person, the project and the planning that wins the award. I helped approve a young postgrad one year who had a credit/distinction average from a city-based university who had many setbacks in life that impacted on their academic achievements. The personality, the fortitude of the individual shone through that was the winner. It’s true a high distinction average helps, but that does not guarantee a Fulbright. I would like to think the current committees maintain the philosophy of the quality of the individual applicant and the project.
Professor Brenda Cherednichenko is Executive Dean, Arts and Education at Deakin University. Her research has focused on educational equity and community-university partnerships for improved educational opportunity and socially just outcomes. She was a Fulbright Scholar in 2008, studying community-university partnerships at the University of Texas, El Paso. Since then, she has served on many Fulbright Selection Committees, and was appointed an official Fulbright Ambassador in 2016.
William Furnish served as the Public Affairs officer at the U.S. Consulate General, Melbourne from 2012-2017. During this time he was a tireless supporter of the Fulbright Program, serving on countless Selection Committees and representing the U.S. Consulate at numerous Fulbright events.. William is about to start a new posting in South Korea and has previously served in Afghanistan ,Columbia and Curaçao.
Dr Dennis Foley is a Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Canberra. His research and publications cross several disciplines; from Indigenous literature, history, education, business management and leadership. His 2001 Fulbright scholarship took him to the University of Hawaii to research Indigenous Affairs. Dennis identifies as a Koori, his matrilineal connection is Gai-mariagal of the Guringah language group, and his father is a descendant of the Capertee/Turon River people, of the Wiradjuri.
Academic excellence is certainly a great element in an application. But it is the duty of the Fulbright selection committees to look for excellence in a range of areas.
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An American's Adventure in Australia
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Christina Zdenek | 2008 U.S. Postgraduate | Univeristy of California, Irvine
Australian National University
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less travelled by, And that has made all the difference. - Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken
Milking death adders, chasing cockatoos, trapping feral cats, living out bush in an abandoned abattoir, and shooting 8-foot sling-shots for a job: these are just a few of the non-conventional activities I have relished in Australia since my Fulbright in 2008. Life is full of choices, small and big. For me, one stands out among the rest: my decision to apply for the Fulbright in 2007. Six months and incalculable hours of persistence later, I was chosen to be a Fulbright Scholar. What an honour. I was one of eight from the States heading to Australia that year. Without knowing a soul in Oz, I was full of beans as I exited the jumbo jet to begin my dream as a wildlife biologist in one of the most biodiverse regions of the world. Naturally, within two months I became a reptile presenter, handling some of the world’s most reputably venomous snakes like Taipans, Browns, and Death Adders. This exciting and fulfilling work took me up and down the eastern seaboard, educating the public on how to safely live with these hazardous snakes. An evolutionary natural progression took me to birds next. This time to one of the most remote regions of Australia: the far north of Cape York Peninsula, Queensland. I was commissioned by Professor Robert Heinsohn at the Australian National University to unlock the many mysteries of an iconic, elusive rainforest parrot - the Palm Cockatoo.
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Trekking through tall, tropical grass in a vast, wild landscape in pursuit of an iconic species may sound glorious, but most of my time was spent waiting… And waiting… And more waiting for the birds to simply show up. If I had any patience before, this work truly brought that virtue to a new high. But when they did show up, it was utterly spectacular. Witnessing the complex, whistling vocalisations and involved display behaviours was immensely rewarding on a scientific and personal level. For six years I would return for more pain and pleasure, totalling 25 months of living and working out bush in this remarkable part of the world.
(Left) The elusive Palm Cockatoo (image - CNZdenek), (overleaf, clockwise from top-left) Christina - mining work (image - J. Searle, The deadly Death Adder (image - Daniel Bromley), Measuring Palm Cockatoo hollows (image - A.C.Cowper) Checking nests with a pole-mounted camera (image - Sam Travers)
Next on my adventure was researching yet another iconic Aussie critter: the koala. For six months of fieldwork, I collaborated in the field with dozens of rangers throughout eastern and southern Australia on the largest (geographically) koala project ever undertaken. This time, the task involved shooting a small bean bag up to 40m high using an eight-foot sling-shot to collect Eucalyptus leaf samples for nutrient testing. My sling-shot shenanigans in childhood certainly came in handy for this job! Unprecedented productivity in the field resulted in the collection of over 2,000 leaf samples from as many mature tree tops. One shot, however, did not go so well. A brief distraction by a mighty fine volunteer made me lose track of the flying bean bag as it catapulted through the forest air. This wasn’t a problem… That is, until its return journey back to the ground. Luckily, I sighted the plummeting bag again just in time to move my head out of danger, but it still pummelled me with great velocity directly in the chest. Knocked to the ground, the bruising pain and lack of wind in my lungs quickly melted away as my new hero knelt down above me with soothing words to make it all better. After five years of short-term contracts with multiple universities, it was time to settle down. A PhD was next. What topic would I choose? More parrot work, maybe feral cats, or perhaps remote sensing?
My innate fascination with snakes still burned strongly inside me, which led me to research snake venom… As you do! Whilst I could handle and identify nearly every Australian snake on the east coast, this surprisingly provided little help in climbing this new Mt. Everest of a task. I’m currently a third of the way through this serious undertaking, and all very exciting! Too many papers on the go at once, but hopefully my results will provide clinicians with currently absent insight into the venom variability across many species of medical significance; plus, it just might unveil a promising pathway into anti-cancer drugs. The aforementioned is just a hint of the countless adventures I’ve been privileged to enjoy over the past nine years since the start of my Fulbright in 2008, and I cannot wait to see what’s next. While I’d like to think that my Fulbright changed my life and made it what it is today—and don’t get me wrong I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity it provided—the truth is that, without the Fulbright Fellowship, I’m still me. Yes, I could have taken the road more travelled and not applied for the Fulbright, but in that circumstance, the reality is that I’m sure the other road would still have been full of adventures, successes, and intrigue because… Really… Life is what you make it. - Christina N. Zdenek
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Project MoonArk ... Artworks by a Fulbright alumnus are set to take a giant leap for mankind as they are launched to the Moon. Images of two works by Charles Darwin University senior lecturer Dr Ioannis Michaloudis have been selected to feature in a cultural heritage site to be erected on the lunar surface. They will journey more than 383,000 km to the Moon from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, United States, aboard the Space X Falcon 9 rocket. “The pentagonal sculpture, known as ‘MoonArk’, will remain on the Moon forever and will be an archive for humankind.” Dr Michaloudis said. “On the Moon there is no atmosphere; no oxidization; low gravity; so it is the ideal space to preserve artwork.”
“Bottled Nymph is like a piece of sky, in a bottle. The sky is the last layer, the most immaterial layer, of Earth. It is the blue-and-golden breath of our planet. What will happen with our sky if we continue this pattern of over-production? Many philosophical and ecological concepts are contained in this tiny bottle.” “Noli me tangere were the words spoken by Jesus Christ to Mary Magdalene after the Resurrection. He was saying ‘Do not touch me [for I am between worlds]’. This material, and my artworks, they look like they are from another world, but the concepts they represent are tangible.” MoonArk is scheduled for launch in 2019.
(M)other Earth
Bottled Sky
Around 300 works will feature on the sculpture as part of the Moon Arts Project led by academics and students at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Images of each piece will travel in the form of engravings on sapphire disks, stored within one of the sculpture’s four chambers. Dr Michaloudis’ works, Bottled Nymph and Noli Me Tangere make use of silica aerogel - a cutting-edge nanomaterial developed by NASA. His unique approach to sculpture is a worldfirst, and his philosophical musings provide deep insight into the nature of visual art.
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“My work has always been about immateriality, and the concept of spirituality behind the real form—or the representation of the form— in sculpture. I found the personification of immateriality within this substance; it looks like frozen smoke, like a ghost, but it is a solid.
A Piece of Sky Between Your Fingers
First published in Poetry, May 2016
Noli Me Tangere
Bottled Nymph
Dr Ioannis Michaloudis | 2001 Greek Artist Award | Independent Artist
Massachussetts Institute of Technology
Dr Ioannis Michaloudis is a visual artist, academic, and researcher internationally acknowledged as one of the leaders in Art/Science crossover projects. He is the first creator and investigator on the application of NASA’s nanomaterial silica aerogel in Visual Arts, Design and Architecture. In 2001, after receiving the Fulbright Award for Greek Artists, he moved to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States. There he completed his postdoctoral research on Art & Science as a Research Fellow, whilst teaching postgraduate students. He is currently coordinating the postgraduate program in Visual Arts at Charles Darwin University. He is the author of twelve papers, has had twelve solo international exhibitions and has been invited to more than twenty international Art & Science exhibitions and conferences.
I found the personification of immateriality within this substance; it looks like frozen smoke, like a ghost, but it is a solid.
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Dr Ioannis Michaloudis, (Image - Charles Darwin University
By Professor Patricia Aufderheide Does copyright help creators when they’re making work, like it does once they’re collecting on it? In Australia, the answer is: sometimes. Chris Wallace wrote a biography of Germaine Greer in spite of the fact that Greer refused permission to quote even from her published work. Wallace used exceptions written into Australian copyright law to go ahead anyway.
But other Australian creators haven’t found a way to create under one of the world’s most restrictive copyright regimes. Here are comments from interviews we’ve recently conducted in an ongoing study at Queensland University of Technology:
"I’ll never make another music doco – too painful. And we’ll lose our Australian music heritage if we can’t tell those stories." "I had to remove song lyrics and references to popular culture from my novel, so it’s less vivid and specific." "Here at the gallery we’re curating amazingly innovative work, but we don’t dare show what we’re doing online to a much wider audience – and the one it was made for." "The choir in our bush community gets together every year to sing Christmas carols, and it’s a great community story. But the film we made about it can’t be distributed. Who knew so many Christmas carols were copyrighted by American companies?"
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The common denominator: licensing problems, from high prices to outright refusal to a deadly silence. This is a genuine and well-known cost of copyright monopoly, one that prevents new work from being generated, from collecting revenue and royalties, and from contributing to Australian culture. It results from copyright law that narrowly restricts unlicensed access. To deal with this known problem, other Commonwealth countries have more flexible “fair dealing” rules, and one popular option in Asia is the more general option of “fair use.” Yet the voice of creators trying to make new work within Australia’s copyright framework has not yet surfaced in the current highly polarised, relentlessly politicised debate.
As my recent published research with Dorian Hunter Davis on the inquiry process showed, there’s a big hole in discussion of Australia’s copyright reform. Over twenty years and seven inquiries, Australian government agencies have found Australian copyright law outdated and unready for the digital era. Inquiry after inquiry has falsely pitted technological innovation and consumers against creators – and stalled the debate. Our research found this pattern repeated in the last two inquiries. Why is that a false opposition? Because almost everyone these days is both a consumer and a creator. So the real problem isn’t which side you’re on; it’s about the costs and benefits to creative production of different approaches.
Does today’s copyright law promote Australian culture, or hinder it? Would policy that permits more (though still controlled) access to existing material help or hurt Australian culture? Right now, we simply don’t know. The actual creator of new culture, talking about the creative process, was strikingly absent in all those government inquiries. Almost no creator, except academics, even spoke about the process of making work.
Policy-makers need to know about the creative process, and it’s not their fault that they’re not hearing it. It’s hard to come by.
When the same issues were being debated in New Zealand, the government commissioned original, independent research on creative practices today.
Film-makers, choreographers, playwrights, designers, visual artists and musicians may be too busy making their work to focus on policy. Remixers, samplers and digital storytellers are unrepresented. Creatives’ collecting societies— the organisations that collect royalties and fees on artists’ behalf—aren’t interested in creative process; they’re interested in collecting licensing fees, and they relentlessly cultivate the creatives’ guilds. Publishers guard their archives zealously. The Motion Picture Association of America doesn’t want anyone to get the idea they can copy any part of American movies.
There, as in Australia, filmmakers are forced to go to physical archives when they could be looking online. They can’t use material when its owner can’t be found. They avoid work that involves a lot of quotation because of both expense and time-limited licences. Authors spend large chunks of time hunting down copyright owners; and the evolution of ebooks has been held back. Librarians and archivists would like to digitise their collections and make them available; galleries, too, find digital innovation just out of their reach. Budding visual artists are running scared.
In the copyright debate, all these interest groups speak as if they represent creators’ interests in all areas. And they all act as if new creators don’t face costs from long, strong copyright laws that keep existing culture offlimits unless the copyright holders (very rarely the actual creators) agree.
It’s no surprise that this side of creative experience isn’t documented by collecting societies or publishers. It’s creators who feel the pinch, and they might not even know there’s an alternative approach. Worse, their collecting societies, and the guilds that are so dependent on the collecting societies, may tell them—without any evidence— that change threatens their revenues.
Since copyright exceptions (or user rights), by definition, don’t intrude on the market for the original work, this claim would really need some very strong evidence to be plausible. But creators don’t know that; they’re not copyright experts and they shouldn’t have to be. So independent research that provides reliable information on current practice is a valuable tool for policymakers and stakeholders alike. At QUT, with the help of a Fulbright senior fellowship I benefit from, we are running a survey to explore the implications of copyright for creative practice in Australia. Australians may eventually decide that fair dealing, as currently designed, is suitable for Australia’s economy and culture. They may decide, as the Canadian government eventually did, to tweak fair dealing to make it far more flexible. They might, as Israel did, adopt U.S.-style fair use. Whatever they decide, it will matter most to them. Whatever they decide will affect the quality, quantity and very nature of future Australian culture, so it’s worth hearing from the actual creatives. By Professor Patricia Aufderheide Originally published in Inside Story
Prof Patricia Aufderheide | 2016 U.S. Senior Scholar | American University Queensland University of Technology Patricia Aufderheide is University Professor in the School of Communication at American University in Washington, D.C. During her Fulbright program, Patricia shared knowledge working alongside Australian scholars, media makers, industry leaders, arts management executives, and policy makers. She is interested particularly in the intersection of copyright understanding and creative decision-making in the arts; in the social impact of film and video; and in media ethics. Australian experience in making media under today’s copyright policies is of great value in understanding global challenges in copyright reform.
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Holistic
Approaches to Rehabilitation
Kristian Wale | 2016 Professional (Coral Sea Fund) | Shaftesbury Centre
Arizona State University
It is not every day that you get to witness the ceremonial smearing of blue cornmeal over a sandstone hot-plate and watch an elder from the Hopi Nation prepare and cook the translucent Piki bread of northern Arizona.
Some bureaucrats and not-for-profit organisations appear to remain committed to a failing philosophy of ‘telling how to do’ or ‘doing’ programs for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia.
It goes without saying that my 2016 Fulbright experience was much more than just simply eating traditionally-cooked food on Native American Reservations. The Coral Sea Professional Scholarship that I completed has become the bedrock in working to empower Indigenous communities throughout Queensland.
The HJCS model enables First Nation communities to develop and run their own cultural healing centres while getting funded directly by the government for their efforts.
Queensland does not have a great track record when it comes to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander incarceration. As recidivism rates reach critical levels throughout the country and the government invests billions of dollars into new capital infrastructure for extra prison cells, I have serendipitously connected with other like-minded ‘change agents’ committed to initiating alternative solutions in this particular field. Together, we make up Holistic Justice & Community Services Pty Ltd (HJCS) a new start-up that is dedicated to empowering and enabling First Nations communities to facilitate on-country Healing Centres as an alternative to mainstream prison.
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With the Government currently spending more than $1,400 per day in detaining a young person in Queensland and with over 70 per cent of the young people currently in detention identifying as Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders - we desperately need a different strategy. The Fulbright Professional Scholarship allowed me to witness a number of fully autonomous operations and enterprises that are proudly managed and successfully delivered by Native Americans in tribal nations throughout the United States. Fulbright not only gave me the opportunity to observe these enterprises - it has helped pave the way for me to implement some of the components into the operational model of Healing Centres for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
With over 70 per cent of the young people currently in dete - we desperately need a different strategy.
(Left to right)) Kristian Wale OAM; Kristian with Ken Georgetown, CEO of Murri Watch, Queensland
Kristian Wale first started working with homeless young people on the streets of Brisbane in the early 1990s, soon realising that education was a key factor in the prevention of youth disengagement. In 1998, Kristian joined the Shaftesbury Centre as an educator and was later promoted to CEO in 2007, where he established an array of independent schools for disenfranchised young people. In 2017, Kristian became the Managing Director of Holistic Justice and Community Services Pty Ltd, an innovative company offering alternative solutions to the overrepresentation of Indigenous people in prison.
In 2017 Kristan was awarded a medal in the Order of Australia for his commitment to working with vulnerable young people. During his 2016 Fulbright Scholarship, Kristian was hosted by the Centre for Indian Education housed within Arizona State University’s School of Social Transformation, conducting research on strategies used in Native American Reservations that target adolescent disengagement. An outcome of Kristian's research is that Indigenous communities in Australia will benefit from some of these strategies being used in the United States and this may assist in addressing the over-subscription of young Indigenous people being incarcerated.
ention identifying as Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders
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Electron Drawing - Visual Music Electron Drawing – Visual Music is a public art project by Baltimore-based artist and composer Timothy Nohe. In this work audiences interacted with live projected light drawings and analog modular synthesizer music with a wave of their hand.
Electron Drawing – Visual Music is rooted in expressive drawing, fascinating mathematical discoveries of the 19th century that trace “lissajous” patterns, and the “switched-on” analog synthesizer music of the 1960s.
The results were seen and heard immediately when projected onto a large LED wall at the National Aquarium Marine Mammal Pavilion. Using two gestural infrared controllers, audience members cooperated to shape the sound and image in real time, literally sculpting the sound and flow of abstract imagery that was generated by an analog modular synthesizer and a “hot-wired” 1980s video game console called a Vectrex.
Launched by the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts in 2016, Light City Baltimore is the first large-scale, international light festival in the United States. It takes its inspiration, in part, from Vivid Sydney. Now in its second year, Light City Baltimore welcomed more than 470,000 people of all ages and from across the globe.
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Electron Drawing: Folded Ribbon
Electron Drawing: Calligraphic
Timothy Nohe | 2006 Senior Scholar | University of Maryland, Baltimore County Timothy Nohe is an artist, composer and educator engaging traditional and electronic media in civic life and public places. His work has been focused upon sustainability and place, and musical and video works for dance and live performance. He was the recipient of a 2006 Fulbright Senior Scholar Award from the Australian-American Fulbright Commission, and was awarded the Commission’s 2011 Fulbright Alumni Initiative Grant, which resulted in multiple exhibitions in the United States and Australia on view from 2012-2016.
University of Wollongong
Nohe has been the recipient of five Maryland State Arts Council Awards, and a Creative Baltimore Award. A 2011 National Endowment for the Arts and William G. Baker Fund “Our Town Project - Creative Placemaking” grant supported his My Station North: Sounds Surrounding Us through the Station North Arts and Entertainment District. Nohe is the founding Director of the Center for Innovation, Creativity and Research in the Arts (CIRCA) and a tenured Professor of Visual Arts at UMBC.
Nohe was an Artist in Residence at the Centre for Creative Arts at La Trobe University from 2011–2014. He was granted and renewed in the rank of Adjunct Professor at La Trobe University, in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, 2011-2015. He currently serves on the editorial board of the international journal, Unlikely, which is based in Melbourne and plans a return to Australia to embark on a Seedpod residency at Punctum, Catlemaine, beginning digitally in late 2017, and continuing with a visit to Victoria in 2018.
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Our Greatest Feats
are seldom accomplished alone
Caitlin Trethewy | 2016 Postgraduate (WG Walker) | GHD Group Harvard-University Solar-powered satellite
Rocket Park, Houston Space Centre
In March I travelled to Houston, Texas to take part in a three-day seminar on American Innovation and Entrepreneurship hosted by the U.S. State Department. Over 160 Fulbrighters explored innovation in different fields and cultures. We participated in seminars hosted by Rice Business School, volunteered at the Houston Food Bank, and visited the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center at NASA. The lunar landing is a testament to American ingenuity and engineering. Only after living among Americans for ten months can I begin to understand a people who are so bold, creative, and hard-working as to think they could land on the moon. But the Space Program is so much more…
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One week prior to Houston I volunteered at the Harvard Social Enterprise Conference. I attended a panel discussion on “business models for sustainability” featuring U.S.based entrepreneurs working on clean energy technologies in international markets. I asked what they thought the role for government was in supporting this kind of innovation. Their response echoed what I heard in Silicon Valley with the Harvard Future Society in January: a series of anecdotes about ineffective government processes, and a polite request to “butt out”. Disheartened, I wondered why I was pursuing a policy degree when practitioners saw no role for government.
The Space Program was the antidote to this malaise: a goal so audacious, where the realized benefits would be so far into the future that only the government could pull it off, and a mission so complex that it would call upon talent from many different fields and across the globe. In 1963 Dr Robert Jastrow, a theoretical physicist at NASA, described the program as the reunification of fields of science that had split hundreds of years ago during the scientific revolution, into a new field, that of space science. NASA currently has no working spacecraft and is reliant on international partners and the private sector to transport people and equipment to and from the International Space Station. I believe that President Kennedy intended for this challenge to galvanize us, and to bring us together in pursuit of a higher goal. In 1969, 600 million people cheered alongside the NASA team when Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon, and it was broadcast from a site just outside Canberra. At a time when prominent nations are adopting isolationist policies and anti-immigrant rhetoric is widespread, it is important to remember that our greatest feats are accomplished together.
Satellite exhibit, Houston Space Centre
We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win. - John F. Kennedy, 1962
Orion - NASA's next-gen spacecraft
”
Missions to Mars and beyond lie in humanity’s future but other, greater challenges lie close to home.
When humanity touched the lunar surface, the average age of the engineers and operators in the control room was 26. They heard the words above at the age of 18. At 16 I heard Vice President Gore’s call to action in An Inconvenient Truth. 18 months later I would enroll in a Bachelor of Renewable Energy Engineering at UNSW, and ten years later I will spend this summer advising one of America’s largest corporations on renewable energy procurement. Thanks to the Australian-American Fulbright Commission, I have had the opportunity engage with doers and thinkers from around the world. It is global mobility and knowledge exchange such as this that holds the keys to mitigating climate change and adapting to its effects. - Caitlin Trethewy Rover
Mission Control
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Saturn V rocket
Online community behaviours in Queensland Matthew Lee | 2015 U.S. Postgraduate | University of Pennsylvania Queensland University of Technology Speaking at the 2016 PAX gaming conference, Melbourne
When I came to Brisbane three years ago for the G20 Global Business Challenge, I learned that it was a city with a storied past. Behind all the colorful banners flapping in the wind, and the towers of glass and steel common to so many other urban centers around the world was a rich and interesting history. Brisbane was once reputed as the most punishing penal settlement in all of Australia, and later, after World War II, as a big country town with no great landmarks like the Sydney Opera House or Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance. (And no, the Brisbane Eye hardly counts.) Brisbane makes up for this with temporary spectacles that reflect the ever-shifting faces of the city, hosting events like the G20, the World Science Festival, the Brisbane International Film Festival, and of course, the eponymous Brisbane Festival. Perhaps it’s only fitting then, that I, a scholar of games, communities, and temporary spaces, arrived in Brisbane just in time for the celebration of Australia Day, with the bridges of the city painted with brilliant lights and fireworks bursting over the city. 42
The Queensland University of Technology, where I undertook my Fulbright Scholarship in 2015, is at the very heart of the city. In fact, it was the first place in Australia I visited long ago, pitching a video game that would teach people to be more aware of the environment by letting them build— and manage—empires in a virtual world where water was a finite resource. This time, however, I was there not to make a video game, but to study them, in collaboration with Professor Daniel Johnson, a psychologist and games researcher, who is well known for his work with games and well-being.
Matthew at the 2016 Fulbright Scholar Showcase, Melbourne
Along with Professor Winnifred Louis from the University of Queensland, we investigated what shapes how communities grow in virtual worlds, and why some people in these communities tend to be friendlier than others. With over a billion people in the world playing games today, it’s something of an important topic. Our study looked at the communities that formed around Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas (MOBAs), a genre of team-based games where players often find themselves in competition with teammates for the roles or resources they need to beat an opponent. Participants filled out surveys about their experiences with a game and its community, covering preferred roles, who they played with, how much they played, and more. Preliminary results show that one aspect of player passion and engagement is associated with number of hours and matches played, a mindset of individual skill being what matters, and perceptions of others as toxic, while another is tied to good teamwork, cooperative play, and the community being welcoming. Oddly, neither are tied to a player actually doing better at a game, which is something to follow up on. I’m now back in the States continuing my research at the University of Pennsylvania, working on how to use games for the greater good, and I do miss Brisbane. The spectacle of festivals and plays, the talks about the future of society, the hackathons, the sense of community among its researchers and game developers, all that and more. - Matthew Lee
A Note From the Editor of Minds & Hearts A huge thanks to all the contributors to this month's edition of Minds & Hearts. I had a great deal of fun putting this one together, in part due to all of the fantastic stories and pictures that were sent to the office following the release of the last edition. Of course, this made the task of curating content for the final cut exceedingly difficult, but do not be disheartened if your story wasn't published - we keep everything on file, and will continue to publish your stories for as long as you keep sending them in! The March edition had quite a strong STEM focus, so for July I wanted to showcase some of our scholars in the humanities and creative arts. Between Yani Michaloudis sending art to the Moon; Patricia Aufderheide's unique insight into copyright law in Australia, and Kristian Wale's inspiring work setting up holistic solutions to rehabilitation in remote communities, I certainly wasn't short of highlights. Fulbright Scholars have had such a significant impact on all disciplines, so I look forward to the opportunity to highlight our geologists, astronomers, writers, painters, musicians, historians, and countless others in future editions. Please keep sending your stories, pictures, and updates to our Alumni Relations Manager, Dr Pablo Jimenez, and thanks to all of you for your ongoing support of the Commission.
- Alex Maclaurin
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Down 1...The exclusive control of supply, and the world’s most boring board game. 2...A coloured rock, and iconic national park. 3...Don’t tread on me. 4...A ubiquitous American town, home to a certain cartoon family. 5...Not physically existing as such but made by software to appear to do so. 6...Prominent American astronaut, and the result of repeated bicep exercise. 8...What weighs half a tonne and can fly without wings?
Across
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7...A sour, seeded tropical fruit, and key criterion for Fulbright application. 9...An ostentatious Australasian parrot. 10...Transparent native pastry. 11...Not harmful or toxic to living tissue. 12...Cutting-edge video game technology, circa 1982.
March Solutions Down: 1. Neuroscience 2. Cordyceps 4. Maccullocella 6. Gluten 7. Empathy 8. Radiocarbon 9. Syapse Across: 3. Coaldrake 5. Consciousness 10. Thalassography 11. Bleich 12. Ventral 13. Pneumoniae
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